The website Backpage.com has settled a sex trafficking
lawsuit brought by three girls who alleged they were sold for sex in the
“escort” section of the website. Trial in the case was scheduled to begin
next week in Pierce County, Washington.

Filed in 2012, the plaintiffs alleged they were between 13 and 15 years old
when they were advertised for sex on Backpage.com.
Each of the plaintiffs claimed a sex trafficker paid Backpage.com a small fee to post their sex ads
in the “escort” section of the website.

In their complaint,
the plaintiffs alleged the website should be held liable because it “knowingly
developed a nationwide online marketplace for illicit commercial sex” and did
so “because of the millions of dollars that they generated from the website
every month.” The plaintiffs claimed the website had a practice of
“altering ads before publication by deleting words, phrases, and images
indicative of criminality” and then “publishing the ‘sanitized ads’ for a fee.”

The lawsuit was the first in the country to defeat the website's argument that
it is immune from sex trafficking lawsuits under the Communications Decency
Act. Passed in the mid-1990s to promote the growth of the internet, the
CDA gives websites immunity from lawsuits for content posted by third
parties. Both the trial court and the Washington
Supreme Court rejected the website’s argument that the CDA protected it
from the plaintiffs’ allegations.

Erik Bauer, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said he could not discuss the
settlement because it is confidential: “I cannot discuss the terms of the
settlement because it is confidential. We settled on mutually agreeable
terms and our clients are pleased with the result.”

One of the plaintiffs, J.S., hopes that her case will help others: “I
hope the evidence we discovered in our case will help other survivors of sex
trafficking. The CDA should not be a defense to profiting from child sex
trafficking. Children who are sold for sex online should not be told that
they are the cost of doing business for technology companies that are older
than I am.”

Bauer’s co-counsel, Seattle attorney Michael Pfau, says the plaintiffs
uncovered evidence that the website intended to promote sex trafficking, not
prevent it: "Backpage tried to have our case thrown out by claiming
it was immune under the CDA. They went so far as to claim they had a
system for preventing sex trafficking of minors. The Washington courts
were the first in the country to rule that we should have a chance to test what
the website was claiming. In the end, we believe we showed their system
was designed to promote sex trafficking, not prevent it.”

Jason Amala, another attorney for the plaintiffs, said the company could not
explain how their system helped to protect children: “A number of their
top executives refused to answer nearly all of our questions and invoked their
Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Even their in-house
lawyer could not explain how removing terms like ‘amber alert’ or ‘lolita’ helps
to fight child sex trafficking. In our view, they were just sanitizing
sex ads to reduce the chances that they would have to remove the ads and make
less money.”

On January 9, 2017, Backpage.com shut down
the “escort” section hours after the United States Senate issued a scathing report about the
company’s alleged role in online sex trafficking. According to the Senate
report, the website generated $135 million in revenue in 2014, and the vast
majority of that revenue was from sex ads. The website claimed the
“escort” section was shut down due to allegations of “censorship” by the United
States government.

The attorneys are shifting their focus to other lawsuits they have helped file
against the website, including two more cases in Washington, one in California,
and one in Texas. The lawsuits include allegations based on evidence
obtained in the Washington case that settled.

For example, one
of the complaints alleges that Backpage.com’s
CEO, Carl Ferrer, sent an email where he said it would be “too harsh” to ban
advertisements that contained words or images that indicated the ad was for
sex. Instead, Ferrer allegedly said it was “[b]etter to edit by removing
bad text or removing bad language” so that users could “adjust.” The
complaint cites the email as evidence that the website intentionally sanitized
sex ads so that it could profit from the ads.

Bauer believes many more sex trafficking victims are likely to come
forward: “Thousands of children have been sold for sex on that
website. They are starting to come forward as they realize people support
them, not those who profit from sex trafficking.”

The lawsuit featured prominently in a recent documentary about online sex
trafficking. Titled “I Am Jane
Doe,” the documentary premiered earlier this year and chronicles lawsuits
by multiple families to hold Backpage.com
liable for alleged sex trafficking of minors. All but the Washington case
were dismissed because of the CDA.

Two bills have been proposed in Congress in response to the attention generated
by the Washington case, the Senate report, and “I Am Jane Doe.” Both
bills state that the CDA does not provide immunity to entities that knowingly
promote sex trafficking.

Amala welcomes the clarity and hopes tech companies will join the current
dialogue: “This law is more than 20 years old and was passed when people
were still using AOL to access the internet. We need the tech companies
to tell Congress they will continue to prosper even if steps are taken to hold
sex traffickers accountable. They’ve been virtually silent, or worse, the
advocacy groups they fund have sided with Backpage.com
and sex traffickers.”

To date, Oracle, 21st Century Fox, and Hewlett Packard are the only
major tech companies to support the pending legislation. Other companies,
like Google, have criticized the bill. Google’s vice president of public
policy, Susan Molinari, called the proposed legislation a “disaster” while at
the same time saying “Backpage.com can and
should be held accountable for its crimes.”

Amala says Google and others can’t have it both ways: “Google is speaking
out both sides of its mouth. You can’t say you are against child sex
trafficking at the same time you are lobbying against a law to prevent
it. If Google wants to help stop sex trafficking then Ms. Molinari should
spend her ‘20% time’ on helping us figure out a solution. Just saying
‘no’ doesn’t do anything to help the thousands of women and children being
trafficked every day.”

Washington: The Washington lawsuit was filed on behalf of two
teenage girls who are identified as R.O. and K.M. R.O. alleges she was 14
to 15 years old, and K.M. alleges she was 16 years old, when they were sold for
sex on the website. Each girls alleges she was sold for sex in the
greater Seattle area. R.O. alleges her ads appeared on the website from
October 2014 until December 2015. K.M. alleges her ads appeared in early
2015. Both girls allege they were repeatedly sexually abused as a result
of being advertised for sex on the website.

California: The California lawsuit was filed on behalf of a
teenage girl who the complaint identifies as “Jane Doe.” Jane Doe alleges
she was 15 years old when she was sold for sex on the website. Jane Doe
alleges she was sold for sex in Riverside County, California. Jane Doe
alleges her ads appeared on the website for weeks in August 2015. Jane
Doe alleges she was repeatedly sexually abused as a result of being advertised
for sex on the website.

Texas: The Texas lawsuit was filed on behalf of a teenage girl who
identified as “J.M.” In her complaint, J.M. alleges she was 15 to 16
years old when she was sold for sex on the website. J.M. alleges she was
sold for sex in Hawaii, but filed suit in Texas because Dallas, Texas, was the
principal place of business for the website during the time she was
abused. In October 2016, authorities raided the Dallas
offices
of the website after its CEO, Carl Ferrer, was arrested. J.M. alleges her
ads appeared on the website from March 2015 through September 2015. J.M.
alleges she was repeatedly sexually abused as a result of being advertised for
sex on the website.